Society's ChildS


Dollars

Congress to double student loan interest rates


RT.com
Fri, 28 Jun 2013 20:24 UTC
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© Reuters / Kevin LamarqueU.S. Capitol building.
Seven million college students will see their student loan costs double on Monday, after a group of bipartisan lawmakers failed to agree on a plan to keep interest rates down.

The Senate adjourned for the July 4 recess on Thursday, but failed to keep interest rates on Stafford loans at the current 3.4 percent rate. The federally subsidized loans are set to expire on July 1, after which the interest rate cap will rise to 6.8 percent.

Congress' Joint Economic Committee estimates that the average student will be paying $2,600 more starting July 1. On a $23,000 student loan repaid over 10 years, a student would be paying about $3,000 total interest.
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Cow

Global food system vulnerable due to growing population and climate change

Isis Almeida
Bloomberg.com
Thu, 27 Jun 2013 15:54 UTC
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© Daniel Acker/BloombergImmature corn plants are surrounded by standing water in a field outside Wyanet, Illinois, on May 28, 2013. Corn jumped to a record in August after the worst U.S. drought since the 1930s left limited supplies.
The global food system will remain "vulnerable" in the years to come as a growing population boosts demand for crops and climate change makes weather disruption more frequent, according to the World Bank.

The world will need to produce 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed a global population expected to grow to more than 9 billion from 7 billion now, the United Nations' Rome-based Food & Agriculture Organization estimates. The three biggest annual gains in food prices in the past 20 years occurred since 2007, with the FAO's food prices index of 55 items climbing to a record in February 2011.

Comment: Food insecurity is already an issue and has been for many years:
Food insecurity hits almost 15 percent of US household
World Food Prices Surge to Record, Passing Levels That Sparked 2008 Riots

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Cow

Dairy prices rising in California even as farmers struggle to stay afloat

Janet O
KCRA.com
Sun, 30 Jun 2013 19:30 UTC
Dairymen across the state are struggling to stay afloat, and it won't get any better without paying dairies market value for whey.

When the California Department of Food and Agriculture set a temporary price hike until the end of the year, it gave producers 12.5 cents more, but didn't solve the main issue, said Michael Marsh, the CEO of Western United Dairymen.

A big discrepancy exists in what the state dairies get paid for whey compared to other states where the farmers get paid according to federal whey standards, Marsh said.

For example, the price of whey under federal guidelines is $2.20, versus the state of California, which gives farmers nearly 69 cents per 100 pounds of milk.

Marsh said the temporary price hike may be a small relief to farmers, but it really hurts the consumers, who, he expects, will have to pay more for products such as milk, ice cream and sour cream -- as soon as Monday.

AB31 addresses the whey price structure, said Marsh, adding that he hopes legislators pass a resolution soon.

Last year alone, 105 dairies closed -- most of them located in the northern San Joaquin Valley.

Comment:
Food prices jump to six-month high as dairy costs rise
Food price hikes in 2013 far higher than predicted by government statistics

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Che Guevara

Fears of a civil war growing as Egyptians prepare for day of reckoning over Mohamed Morsi

Patrick Kingsley
The Guardian
Sat, 29 Jun 2013 13:40 UTC
Seven die, hundreds are injured, as rivals organise massive rallies on anniversary of president's rule
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© Amr Nabil/APSupporters of President Mohamed Morsi shout anti-opposition slogans outside the Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque in Cairo, not far from the presidential palace, on Saturday.
Egypt's leading Islamic institution has warned of a possible civil war as clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi spread across the country on Saturday - exactly a year after his inauguration as the first democratically elected president.

Egypt's fate feels as uncertain as at any point since the 2011 uprising, which toppled Hosni Mubarak, with repeated rumours of military intervention.

At least eight people have died and more than 600 have been injured in fighting between Morsi's Islamist allies - who argue that his democratic legitimacy should be respected - and his often secular opponents, who say that he has not shown respect for the wider values on which a successful democracy depends.
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Key

Mother who killed daughter's rapist gets reprieve from prison

Ezequiel Moltó
ElPais.com
Thu, 27 Jun 2013 08:39 UTC
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© Pepe OlivaresMaría del Carmen García is hugged by her daughter, Verónica, after hearing that she will not have to go back to prison.
María del Carmen García already had her suitcase packed, ready to enter the Fontcalent prison in Alicante on Thursday for killing her daughter's rapist. However, at the last minute, the court accepted the appeal filed by her attorney, Joaquín Galant, which called for the suspension of her sentence while the government considers her request for a pardon.

"Thank you all for your support," said García, visibly emotional after learning that, at least for now, she won't have to return to jail to serve the remaining four-and-a-half years of her murder sentence. "They have to pardon me because I'm not a killer," she told reporters.

Her daughter, Verónica, was 13 when she was raped by a neighbor in 1998. The offender was sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2005, while on parole, the rapist returned to their hometown, Benejúzar, and ran into García. "How's your daughter?" he asked her.

María del Carmen's response was blunt. She bought a bottle of gasoline, walked into a bar, doused the convicted rapist and set him on fire. The man died a week later from the burns he suffered.
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Stormtrooper

University of Virginia student jailed for possession of bottled water, ice cream


The Daily Caller
Sat, 29 Jun 2013 20:55 UTC
A University of Virginia student spent a night and good part of the next day in jail after seven plain-clothes agents from the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control division ambushed her.

The student, 20-year-old Elizabeth Daly, made the mistake of walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream in a dark supermarket parking lot near the UVA campus, reports The Daily Progress.

The seven agents sprung aggressively into action, suspecting that the student was carrying was a 12-pack of beer. She was actually carrying a sky-blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water.

Police admit that one of the high-strung agents vaulted onto the hood of Daly's car. She contends that one of them also drew a gun.

It's not clear what about Daly's appearance gave the six police officers the belief that they had probable cause to confront her en masse.

Daly, along with two roommates who were in the car, did what reasonable, unarmed people usually do when violently pounced upon by seven people. They tried to get away.
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Arrow Down

Australian man gets 40 years jail for abusing bought baby


TVNZ
Sat, 29 Jun 2013 18:31 UTC
Justice
© Thinkstock
An Australian man who bought a baby boy for $US8000 ($A8659) with his partner, sexually abused the child and handed him off to other pedophiles to molest, has been sentenced to 40 years' prison in the US.

Judge Sarah Evans Barker, while sentencing the 42-year-old in the US District Court in Indianapolis on Friday, said he deserved a harsher punishment but accepted the plea deal because she did not want to subject jurors to the disturbing evidence.

Prosecutors discovered videos and photos of the man, his domestic partner, also an Australian, and other men in Australia, the US, Germany and France abusing the child from the age of two to six.

"For more than one year and across three continents, these men submitted this young child to some of the most heinous acts of exploitation that this office has ever seen," Indiana US Attorney Joe Hogsett said after the sentencing.
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Question

Horror in landmark Berlin fountain as naked man brandishing knife is shot dead by police

Steve Nolan
The Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 28 Jun 2013 16:08 UTC
The armed man was shot at the Neptune Fountain close to Berlin City Hall

Officers had surrounded him after reports of a man acting strangely

They tried to persuade him to drop the knife but he began cutting himself

He was shot when he moved towards an officer who went to stop him

Shocking video footage has emerged of the moment police shot dead a naked man brandishing a knife in a landmark fountain in Berlin today.

The man was shot once after being surrounded by officers at the German capital's Neptune Fountain, close to the city hall.

Police tried to persuade the man to put the knife away but instead he started cutting himself.

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Too close: The man was shot as he moved towards one of the policemen who went to try and stop him cutting himself. The policeman had shouted at him to back off

As a policeman climbed into the water to try and stop him, he moved towards the officer and was shot.

The footage appears to show the man walking towards an armed police officer who is heard shouting at him.
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Arrow Up

Woman sues employer for baby's death; Similar lawsuits on rise In America

Jonathan Wolfe
Opposing Views
Thu, 27 Jun 2013 10:43 UTC
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A California woman has filed a chilling lawsuit against her employer, the California grocery store chain Albertsons.

As noted by Think Progress, the lawsuit details work events throughout her pregnancy that culminated in the premature birth and death of her baby.

The woman, Reyna Garcia, was a merchandise manager for the store. Her duties on the job included unloading and stocking heavy merchandise from pallets. When she requested to be moved to a section of the store that required less heavy lifting, her request was denied. Her manager told Garcia that he "thought nothing would change" because of her pregnancy.
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Che Guevara

180,000 Irish mortgages in arrears: Next up, mass evictions or revolution?

Pat Flanagan
Irish Mirror
Fri, 21 Jun 2013 05:42 UTC
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Grim figures show tens of billions owed by a generation of Irish people

Homeowners are sitting on a debt time bomb with over 180,000 mortgages in arrears, shocking new figures have revealed.

Almost one in five home loans, worth €25.5 billion, were not being fully repaid at the end of March, the Central Bank confirmed.

And between January and March, bailed out banks took back the keys of more than 160 homes as the problem escalates.


Comment: Same old Land War by other means. Tenant evictions have returned to Ireland, and so has the need for boycotting (ostracising) anyone involved in this malicious practice of collecting usury on behalf of the banks.


The grim data revealed:
  • Those in arrears of more than 90 days has reached over 95,000 or 12.3% - up from 11.9% in the previous three months
  • Over 142,118 private households were behind with their repayments in the first quarter of this year
  • On the landlord and investment side, 39,371 buy-to-let mortgages are in trouble.
David Hall of the Irish Mortgage Holders' Organisation said: "A generation of Irish people are now locked into an endless battle of attrition with the banks.

"In order for those in debt to return to contributing to the economy, we need effective, swift, fair and certain resolution to the household debt crisis."
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